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China and Russia conducted joint naval exercises this week in the Mediterranean Sea — a sign, some security experts say, that the two countries are stepping up defense cooperation to offset U.S. military primacy.

The Russian Defense Ministry said a total of 10 warships from the Russian Navy and China’s People's Liberation Army Navy took part in the week-long exercises. The Chinese Defense Ministry said the joint exercises focused on navigation safety, at-sea replenishment, escort missions and live fire exercises.

Russian and Chinese naval ships are expected to sail out of the Novorossiysk port and head to the Mediterranean Sea to hold their Joint Sea-2015 maneuvers, on Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry has reported.

"The active phase of the exercises will take place in a certain district of the Mediterranean Sea from May 17 to May 21," the ministry's spokesman for the Navy Captain 1st Rank Igor Dygalo told Interfax-AVN on Tuesday.

The unit of the Russian Navy and the People's Liberation Army Navy of China includes China's Linyi and the Weifang frigates and the Russian Black Sea Fleet's Samum amphibious ship, he said. They are expected to cross the Black Sea, sail through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles and catch up with other ships participating in the maneuvers in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.

Antonov also said he was concerned about stability in the region, naming the US as the main destabilizing factor. He said that Washington's policies have been aimed against Russia and China: "We are concerned by US policies in the region, especially since every day it becomes increasingly focused on a systemic containment of Russia and China."

I look forward to reading Peter Singer's new book, "Ghost Fleet," even it does appear to be focused mostly on all domains (cyber, air, space, and maritime) except land and human (if you accept the concept of human domain). I think Peter is correct in that our strategies are failing to incorporate uncomfortable what if's, and the implications of those what if's, and how to adapt.

The Communist Party no longer rules China. In its place is a plutocratic-military regime known as the Directorate. The regime severs its ties with the U.S. — which it perceives as a declining empire holding China back from vital energy resources. With Russian support, China launches a surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet, resulting in its near total destruction.

"In a future battle of high technology, much of the technology will negate itself," he added. "So there's an irony that in a world of robotics, the internet, satellites, that the fight could play out like the battles of World War II."

In Ghost Fleet, the Directorate destroys America's satellites, blinds its warships and fighter jets with electronic noise, and clogs its communications networks with malware. This creates a "digital fog" that makes war just as confusing as America's historical naval battles with Japan.

I look forward to reading Peter Singer's new book, "Ghost Fleet," even it does appear to be focused mostly on all domains (cyber, air, space, and maritime) except land and human (if you accept the concept of human domain). I think Peter is correct in that our strategies are failing to incorporate uncomfortable what if's, and the implications of those what if's, and how to adapt.

I was expecting it to be a 21st century digital generation Red Storm Rising.

I was pretty disappointed.

While I think it does a decent job of looking at the genuine threat posed by a fascist/capitalist/expansionist China and it tried to pull together all of the warfighting domains, I think it did so superficially and simply.

I feel they went quite wide(necessarily across the warfighting domains), but also quite shallow.

Too shallow in many aspects(political/economic warfare/effect and commentary on US and its core allies).

Ghost Fleet is the best techno-thriller since Red Storm Rising.

The work has plenty to keep readers attentive, including military history and pop culture references such as direct and indirect homages to the Battlestar Galactica reboot, Star Trek, Red Dawn, and Tron. This is a book best savored in as few sittings as possible. The authors are clear enough in their message that America is vulnerable, and they’re right. But they’re also correct that innovative thinking will save us in the end

China's Maginot Line

Hat tip to WoTR for this short article, which starts with:

The lessons of the Maginot Line extend well into the 21st century, as China constructs a coastal and offshore defensive belt to defend both its maritime and territorial claims with high-tech and static capabilities. With its Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) strategy, China aims to force the U.S. military to operate at a much greater distance from the Chinese mainland.

China's actions are consistent with those of rising powers throughout history, only colored by their own unique geography, history and culture.

They are doing what we would do in their place, only with more patience and wisdom. I am reminded of the joke of the Old Bull and the Young Bull standing on a hill top looking down at a herd of cows. The US being the young bull in this fable, and China the old.

If US policy is one of strategic stasis, then it means we must keep putting more and more energy into the system, creating a pressure cooker effect as the relative balance of power shifts between the US and China in the region (and in general). But unless China collapses internally ( a distinct possibility that they are very aware of), at some point the pressure cooker will blow.

A policy of strategic evolution is more appropriate. But there are no right answers, and any tradeoffs, regardless of how wise or reasonable, will be labeled by many as "appeasement." Usually those who throw out terms like "appeasement" and "you can't abandon our allies" as rationale for sustaining strategic stasis are also closely related to the chicken hawks who will clamor for war over some small incident that challenges those rigid policies.

Robert C. JonesIntellectus Supra Scientia
(Understanding is more important than Knowledge)

"The modern COIN mindset is when one arrogantly goes to some foreign land and attempts to make those who live there a lesser version of one's self. The FID mindset is when one humbly goes to some foreign land and seeks first to understand, and then to help in some small way for those who live there to be the best version of their own self."Colonel Robert C. Jones, US Army Special Forces (Retired)

With their almost total collapse of their stock exchanges coupled with the devaluation yesterday China is actually struggling to get their economy under control and coupled with a sudden and not anticipated slow down in exports--they are struggling regardless of how they color the picture.

It will get worse when the Fed starts their rise of the US interest rates which will further strengthen the global USD.

With their almost total collapse of their stock exchanges coupled with the devaluation yesterday China is actually struggling to get their economy under control and coupled with a sudden and not anticipated slow down in exports--they are struggling regardless of how they color the picture.

It will get worse when the Fed starts their rise of the US interest rates which will further strengthen the global USD.

China tests its largest airship

On October 13, 2015, China started the 24 hour test flight of its largest airship yet in Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia. The Yuanmeng has a volume of 18,000 cubic meters, a length of 75 meters and a height of 22 meters. It will fly to 20,000 meters to test its control systems and near-space flight performance. With solar panels installed on its top, the Yuanmeng will be one of the largest solar-powered airships in existence. Using solar power to drive its rotors will save additional weight in order to increase payload, and gives it a total flight endurance of six months. The Yuanmeng's 5- to 7-ton payload of data relays, datalinks, cameras and other sensors would also be powered by the sun.

The Sharp Sword is the first non-NATO stealthy unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV). Built by Aviation Industry Corporation of China, with much of the work done by the Hongdu Aviation Industry Group, the Sharp Sword first flew in November 2013. Looking a bit like a mini-B-2 flying wing bomber, the UCAV has two internal bomb bays and a likely payload of about 4,400 pounds. Its engine is a non-afterburning WS-13 turbofan engine, with serpentine inlet to hide the engine from enemy radars (the first Sharp Sword does not use a stealthy nozzle due to its technology demonstrator status). It has a length of about 33 feet, and a wingspan of about 46 feet.

Is it my sick and twisted imagination, or does Popular Science have a love for all weapons Chinese?

They certainly have beaten the Russians in the areas of HGVs, railguns and UAVs.

Wasn't BAE's Taranis the first stealth UCAV? It would be good to know that the British can still do it, as they did with the Meteor and the V-bombers...

Keep in mind the following:

1. The Chinese are adept at creating mock-ups of Western aircraft that aren't necessarily the real thing on the inside
2. The West has been well aware of Chinese espionage efforts for decades now
3. Rather than attempting to keep advanced technology completely secret, it is preferable to allow tainted IP to filter to the adversary, where it can cause mayhem (e.g. the Soviet oil pipeline)
4. The Taranis has an IOC date of ~2029, but this is likely a lie

Ever since Eraser, everyone wants a railgun. Turns out China is no exception. Some photos posted by Dafeng Cao, a Twitter user who keeps close tabs on Chinese military developments, show a ship-mounted gun that could very well be the country's very own homegrown electromagnetically propelled mass driver.
Railguns, or coil guns, accelerate solid metal projectiles using ultra-strong electromagnets, firing them well above speeds achieved by conventional ballistic methods. We're talking Mach 6 here. The U.S. has been working on them for years, and has produced some very cool test videos, but I haven't heard about any of them being mounted on ships.

DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - A U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in Vietnam on Monday for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War, dramatically underscoring the growing strategic ties between the former foes at a time when China’s regional influence is rising. The imposing grey silhouette of the USS Carl Vinson could be seen from the cliff tops just outside the central Vietnamese city of Danang, where the 103,000-tonne carrier and two other U.S. ships begin a five-day visit.

An economist who believes that Chinese goods are literally poisoning Americans, advocates ending Washington's "One China" policy and says trade deals have weakened the United States economically with the connivance of U.S. business has emerged as the big winner from renewed turmoil in the White House.